Bitcoin Forum

I stumbled upon the article "What happens if bitcoin succeeds?" in which John Danielsson, Director of the Center for Systemic Risk at the London School of Economics, argues that the inequality between rich and poor will be further exacerbated.

https://voxeu.org/article/what-happens-if-bitcoin-succeeds



And again, these conclusions are that bitcoin is a bubble, and because it is volatile, it will not be able to equalize with money.
So what are the risks of bitcoin going forward? Is it really capable of seriously dividing society and causing even greater inequality?

Bitcoin is not reserved for the elites, bankers, and the royals. You, me, and everyone else have a choice to invest in it or not. This forum proves that you can earn Bitcoin even without investing by providing a valuable service, advertising, etc. Bitcoin will not create inequality in the world, we already had that before. It might not make you filthy rich, but it can help many people to afford things they otherwise wouldn't be able to purchase.

Those who entered the game early have more, assuming they didn't sell or lost their coins. Even though Bitcoin has been around for over 10 years, it's still a new monetary system and it's not to late to get involved.   

On every kind of "gold rush" some will get rich easy and the vast majority will miss the opportunity. This can be seen as bad, by both those that are already rich and those that have missed the chance. But is it fair the way people get rich? I don't think so. Some are rich from the moment they are born. Is that fair? Some earn millions of dollars for acting or playing whatever sports. Is that fair? Heck, even those that get rich from lottery win are not actually "fair". And the inequality in the society is already there, I don't think that Bitcoin will change much. It would just give the chance to some more smart or lucky people to get a better life.

Is Bitcoin a bubble? Possibly. But it's the one of the very few valuable "things" we can be sure it's indeed scarce. This makes it highly valuable.


Bitcoin's success is a somewhat different story.
I see multiple things necessary for the success and the price is just partly involved in this.
1. It has to have a very secure underlying network. Checked.
2. It has to be valuable, "digital gold". Checked.
3. It has to be 100% fit for worldwide use for payments. Without that it will never be a full success and we are not there yet. But it's work in progress.
4. The "system" should remain working, stable and secure also after the block rewards become insignificant. I fear that this may be tricky, especially after secondary layer(s) will take over most of the transactions.

It can bring more of a divide between the wealthy and the rich. But some people weren't that wealthy, but since Bitcoin came, the people believed in it and had shown that it is the technology to become part of that 1%. I doubt there would be justice with this divide, but there's just nothing we can do about it. We cannot control the currency and distribute it equally within every one of us. Twenty-one million cannot accommodate the whole world. Imagine that.

I still believe that Bitcoin has succeeded already. It's being considered as a hedge for USD, so why is it not successful? They even got to one of the wealthiest people in the world, and if that's not considered successful, then what is? How can you consider Bitcoin as successful?

Society has always been divided, but it won't make things worse—just new adaptation or application for financing, etc. The author still believes Bitcoin is a bubble, so I'm just taking it with a grain of salt.

Most people that discovered bitcoin are not that dirt poor, they have the technology to access bitcoin accessible to them so I think that the divide didn't really narrowed just because of bitcoin because the people that got their hands on bitcoin has the opportunity unlike the real poor that doesn't even have electricity. We can do something about, trying to help other people even with a little money that you can afford is enough if that little amount is put together, we are just afraid that what little money that we have will be gone in our hands.
Success is a matter of perspective, what you said here can be called a success but for some fundamentalist that thinks that bitcoin should be the currency used by the people instead of fiat, I don't think so.
The reason for that divide is because the people let the cunning ones abuse them, if that wasn't the case in the first place, we might be living in a utopia.

It's funny how some people think that something such as Bitcoin could magically fix wealth inequality. Bitcoin is just like any other asset or equity that ends up going up in price— the people who understand it's importance and potential makes a lot of money, while the people who ignore it miss out.

The thing with bitcoin is, even if it's priced at $1,000,000 right now, people who missed out early on could still use it! Self sovereignty and having true ownership over your wealth is still a great selling point.

Bitcoin cannot push the wealth inequality more than, for example, lockdowns do. A lot of the things we do today make the gap between the rich and the poor grow even larger. The more we focus on corporations, the more inequality we'll have.

Taking lockdowns as a real-life example here in Romania: small businesses are brutally failing while the massive corporations are cashing in all the money. What this leads to is the poor getting poorer and the wallets of the rich growing like never before. This sunject is as useless imo as the articles complaining about how much electricity BTC mining uses.

If Bitcoin succeeds, then what happens is we just put history on repeat. Some currently rich people go broke while other poor ones will turn into future Bezoses and Musks. There's currently no way we can equally distribute wealth unfortunately, so the best we can do isndecentralize the economy first.

Yeah, well, same old story again. Wealth inequality is wonderful. To this day, all those who advocate wealth equality have done when they have gained power is to distribute hunger equally among the population. Lately I have been hearing speeches like this from people who until recently were dismissive of Bitcoin, saying that it was a scam, that it was going to go to 0...

Now, as they see that it is going to succeed, they come with Wealth Inequality. What they don't tell is that this story ends with an even more extreme Wealth Inequality. Look at Venezuela or Cuba, where the leaders are multimillionaires and the people suffer misery and hunger. There are no countries more unequal than communist countries.

Isn't that evident already? While big pocket players are setting up big mining rigs and small players are finding it extremely hard to earn bitcoin. So the inequality between the rich and poor will stay there even in crypto market just the way it happens in the real world economy. There's no way to remove it from our lives!

So I would agree with this statement. Bitcoin didn't help to remove the income inequality from our lives. It certainly made some people richer who had adopted it in its early days but holistically it remained as a big boys' game!

Well, small pocket players should buy or earn some Bitcoin (could have been much better if they would have done that some more years ago). Mining is not everything. Just imagine the "small players" that simply got a few Bitcoin from faucets.


It's easy to cry that's unfair that the train has left, while you watched and maybe made fun of all those who got in for all that time the train was waiting.


I has simply re-distributed some wealth. Some wealthy people afford to profit now and it makes everything more visible. But I am sure that some have become wealthy exactly because of Bitcoin and they seem to be conveniently forgotten in this discussion.

I agreed with John Danielsson because there will never total equality in this world and it will be nice if we face this fact and don't lie to ourselves cause only people who make proper use of the opportunities around them will thrive not only in Bitcoin investment but in all investment setting.
Bitcoin will never equalize fiat currency because Bitcoin posed the innovation, potential, liberation, and opportunity every other currency cannot pose.

Bitcoin benefits all long-term investors in proportion to their investments unlike fiat currencies which tend to lose value over time. By the way, the investments help the network and the community.   You don't benefit that much using national banks. The rich and the poor use or save on thesame fiat banks, the poor don't benefit from such collective funds unlike Bitcoin. Bitcoin is fairer... That is how a Just financial system should be run without lawlessly, unfairly & forcefully taking funds from the rich to help the poor

I think we should not shy from the fact that it may be a possibility of an increased gap inequality.

Though, it seems to me that unlike other assets where accessibility is not as easy, crypto actually provides some 'higher' means of getting involved than anything else. Take gold for instance, you'd only be able to store gold as valuable asset if you start with a large sum. This is not the same as with crypto where you can start with as little as $10 and where there's so much availability around with lots of platforms.

With BTC and crypto in general, the knowledge is there, the resources are all there to learn, it is only a matter of wanting and doing. This level of accessibility and availability to all has never been around before, not for any assets I know of.

an article that talks about price all the time and calls that "success" is not worth reading in my opinion. bitcoin's success is not about what price level it is going to reach, the price is only the byproduct of the actual success which is defined as how decentralized bitcoin is and in short how much did it stick to the basic principles that are defined for it
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Principles_of_Bitcoin

What happens if bitcoin succeeds? I don´t now anything  :-\

EsFinanciero (https://esfinanciero.com)

The world is of no balance, we should not be afraid of coming outcomes, we should probably proceed because the world is moving to digital world, we like or we do not like. Has the world is going, bitcoin will becoming more decentralized as it is decentralized from the beginning since 2009. Whales are just also will be helpful, institutions are joining, other single whales will have companies and if such will happen as time goes. All those exchange owners, miners manufacturers, wallet producers, did you think they are not whales or ones of the whales before, also are the gracescale managers. We should not panic but support cryptocurrencies.

That's perhaps what some of us believe. Most investors atm, especially those spamming HODL everywhere, are mostly interested in Bitcoin for its price rising. Its value as an investment cannot be a means to an end. Currently, Bitcoin is mostly just severe wealth redistribution. Most general investors, when pressed, end up accepting its issues in practical use and make clear their belief Bitcoin is some "store of value", and believe that's sustainable or practical. I don't think it is.

A sharp increase in inequality is an inevitable consequence of bitcoin success.

I am in the same situation ???
Emprendedoresdehoy (https://emprendedoresdehoy.com/)

Everyone will be happy. Even today I feel like bitcoin is making my economic life more stable. I don't think it's the end, but the beginning. Bitcoin has just entered several major institutions. I think in the next 5 years there will be one big country that will really make bitcoin as a balance sheet to make people believe more about this, and there will be many who succeed when they get to know bitcoi earlier.

In my own thoughts if bitcoin succeeds, Bitcoin will still be a cryptocurrency without threatening other fiat currencies. It will be the same for bitcoin but in a huge amount of value. Also, when bitcoin succeeds, some of the altcoins will also succeed because more and more people adapt and accept crypto as a part of the traditional trading market. It won't divide society that much because in the near future I believe that we all use digital currency for our daily life.

We could say that bitcoin is not reserved for those at the top but with the current prices, it is getting true day by day. The people at the top can afford the price at any given time and those below them will have to make do with what they can afford and those at the lowest aren't even aware or doesn't have any opportunity to learn about bitcoin. So yeah, I disagree with you that bitcoin is not reserved for the elites. I do agree with you about the inequalities, this has been a thing even before the age of Internet.

Yeah,right.The companies of Elon Musk ain't benefiting me in any way.I don't own a Tesla and don't get any benefit from a space company.I don't get any benefit from Amazon as well,because I don't shop there.
The rich people aren't obligated to contribute to the society.This is some bullshit socialist idea.
Bitcoin isn't required to be equally divided among as many people as possible.This is some egalitarian leftist bullshit. >:(

Bitcoin is for everyone, you can invest, trade on it as long as you want but if you dont then go, those who hodls huge amount of bitcoin and if one day bitcoin succeeds all those people that are hodling bitcoin would earn huge amount of money, actually we cant still define bitcoin as fully successful because it is not still well known all over the world. I will define bitcoin as successful if all the countries are exploring it and by that for sure bitcoin would go so high.

Bitcoin will be known as a new payment system globally, and people will have their own choice to pay using bitcoin or fiat. Besides new payment systems, bitcoin will have other benefits: bitcoin can be a new investment type for people who want to diversify their money. Maybe the government thinks that bitcoin is a threat for their fiat, but if they can open mind about bitcoin, they can use bitcoin works together with fiat, and I think people will be happy to see their investment can grow in the future. Bitcoin is bitcoin, fiat is fiat, and people will have their way to use bitcoin or not and the government can not force them not to use bitcoin.

Bitcoin will not further broaden the gap between the rich and the poor for the reason that Bitcoin is open and available for all as long as you have the capacity to have an access on it. The capability to be rich coming from poor have an open possibility depending upon their effort being exerted and same thing applied to the rich ones. Bitcoin is not a one sided body to get along only for the rich. Yes rich people can do afford it but it does not guarantee that it will broaden the gap or boundaries between the two. It is still depending on how they manage to get along with Bitcoin making them improve their life to the full extent possible.

No doubt that bitcoin success will lead to a sharp increase in inequality. We can already observe how the richest people invest their millions/billions in Bitcoin and how they become wealthier because of BTCs growth while ordinary traders can’t afford themselves such a luxury purchase. However despite the fact that BTC is still not realized as a form of currency because of its volatility once everything can change. But if Bitcoin is a bubble than it’s the biggest bubble the world had ever seen.

Does using bitcoin in betting is actually worth it? I am new with this betting stuff and I am always wondering where to start since I am a little skeptic when it comes in spending my money. I have bitcoin but I couldn't know if this is worth since conversion is quite high. https://[Suspicious link removed]/2OzcAtC

This is something that some people are already achieving with Bitcoin's current value and yes, their contribution would be questioned because all they were doing was investing at the perfect opportunity. Its also possible that in the near future, governments would take an interest with this matter because having someone so rich in a third-world country will pose as a threat to them but having Bitcoin in an advance country is not much of a threat since some people believe that Cryptocurrency owners will take a long time before overtaking people with businesses but that is not the case for Third-world countries.

I believe Bitcoin moving forward will have its pros and cons and with those not being realized by the governments is a huge threat for them and they might create rash decisions that would hurt Cryptocurrency users greatly in the future if this continues.

If many people missed the train it does not mean that it is a bubble or catastrophic event for the future. It is undeniable that fiat currencies will be used concurrently with cryptocurrencies. The central government will issue their digital currencies and they will be cryptocurrencies but centralized. The only purpose of the article is that they want to scare people with conspiracy theories to stop them from using cryptocurrencies because if crypto holders sell, then the wealth people will buy and possess the significant part of the cryptos.

If bitcoin succeeds in being accepted in all countries, it can help people have a new source of income, and while we are still at the pandemic, they can try to make money from crypto/bitcoin. Although it is not easy to do, I am sure people will figure out how they can make money, and they will not give up before they can make their first time money in bitcoin.

Perhaps, the risk of bitcoin will still fluctuate as what we see now, but there will be more chances for people to make money. Yes, the current bitcoin holders will be the richest people among the others, but it can open many people to have that chance. Bitcoin succeeds in increasing the price now, although we see the price is volatile.

A lot of things to consider and a lot of things must be improved for Bitcoin to be able to function as a currency to be primarily used. Displacing fiat is close to impossible, co-existinf with different kinds of currency is the most possible scenario.
Bitcoin success doesn't only mean It will take over and totally displace fiat, but to grow as It how It was created and it's purpose; to eliminate the use of a third party when transacting from one and another and to make a huge adoption.

If you think about it, the wealth would be not be distributed to poor but would be redistributed from those who hold stocks, real estate and fiat to those who hold lots of bitcoin. In essence nothing would change for average man but the FIAT rich would suffer the most.

If the current system of hierarchy persists, then of course bitcoin could cause a greater divide between the rich and the poor, and us middleclassmen will be the ones who will be impacted most from this. Now, Bitcoin offers profitability regardless of how much you put in the system. Thus, this puts the rich and the poor on equal footing with respect to the chances in profits, Hopefully this is sufficient in whittling the current rich and poor people scenario most of us face right now. A wise analysis, especially when we take into consideration the fact that bitcoin is independent to the fiat side of things. Still, we can't really expect the poorest of the poor to be able to invest in bitcoin, if only there is a subsidy program they can take in order to be able to taste the profits in bitcoin as well.

It may be a personal perspective. But in fact, everyone can get into Bitcoin, how much it is and how many they have. Bitcoin is for everyone worldwide, being a digital asset or commodity or even become a means of transaction payment methods.
The existence of bitcoin in the world may not diversify between the rich and also poor. many people are not showing their Bitcoin, so we don't know whether they're rich from Bitcoin or not. that is why I love Bitcoin where it may not really show the gap between the poor and rich.

I don't give any chance for the current situation to change in the future. I mean, Bitcoin has always been for every kind of people (poor, rich etc.). And it will always continue to be like this. And of course, we will also continue seeing new millionaires when the bull market comes.

Already at the current bitcoin price of about $ 60,000, only a rich person can afford to buy a whole bitcoin. The larger the amount of investment in it, the more profit the investor can get in the future. This is the same as in conventional markets.
So far, only those who have previously foreseen the prospects for the development of cryptocurrency have won and purchased it at low prices. In the future, the rules of the stock and securities market apply.

Succeed in what?
It already proves itself it isn't fail project and it is already more than a decade and the price has already skyrocket since it started.
For me it already succeed the price is so high the project had survived for more than a decade and more people or institution has invested,accepted and using it now.

Should bitcoin succeed, I think the world would be more unified than ever. Its a world currency on the rise and viewing it as a store of value only would be really out of place for bitcoin. Its a currency for exchange ge as it should be as much as other currencies.
Besides, bitcoin isn't only bought in bulk or it is that, you must have a list 1Btc at any point. It has got other denominations, the Btc, mBtc and more. Add your at liberty to own as your will and capital power allows, its not bidding on anyone. So, the success of bitcoin would go a long way in creating a sense of unity around the world and for the world as it's boundaries becomes the globe itself.

Can we say the same thing when the mempool is clogged and only big wallets afford to pay for the fees, or when billionaires clearly have an advantage and can afford purchasing a significant % of the supply? The gap will be even larger the more Bitcoin grows. Billionaires are already in and they're still early!

Absolutely and this is the reason why I said there will never be equality anywhere in the world and only people who clench and make reasonable use of the alternative around them will thrive.
Early cryptocurrency adopters are living a life of a Millionaire now.


The rules of the stock and security market will be used to trade or invest in crypto in the future, can you be more specific?

When it comes to inequality then it is something that cant really just get rid off.Rich people would always have the advantage since they can accumulate bitcoin as much as they can

compared into those average joes or earners in the market where accumulation is just really like the same when you are just acquiring your salary on a day stable job.

The advantage here is that you do have the full control of your funds and having anonymity on the money you had earned or coins that  you have gained.

Succeed? Bitcoin already achieved that on the other part but for inequality? then its impossible.

There will be always riches and poors in this world, even the communists progressists don't change this fact when they have power on their hands. I think people should stop with this obsession for equality. That is just a propaganda to earn votes during elections or influence over the society.

The most important thing is to have earning opportunities for everyone willing to improve in life, and bitcoin has total conditions to help on this matter. So each one can take care their own life, help those who they think are worth to be helped and stop measuring who has more or less money or stop trying to fix the world, because it actually doesn't have a plausible solution. This world isn't going to be like heaven, which can be only achieved after life.

Somebody tells him that bitcoin has succeeded. A piece of code launched 10 years ago has now price of 55k$, what else is required to be a successful thing. Still there is no single owner of bitcoin, they are all distributed among crypto community.

anyone can own bitcoin, that's what you mean right? because the quote above only mentions Jeff Bezoz and Elon Musk who are like the two characters who are required to own bitcoin. There is a point and now Bitcoin is not only successful for the big people, but for anyone, bitcoin can work

I don't think that bitcoin (it's use case) is a bubble.. Using it as a speculative asset can make the price a bubble. But if you'd ask me, in general, price or use case, bitcoin doesn't have much threats posing against it. At least not with the hands we're getting on board.

This is the main reason why I'm staying and giving quality posts here in this forum.

You just really need some skills, provide services, and help build a healthy, informed, and educated community about cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin provides financial freedom where we can control and manage our own coins without the supremacy of the governments.

The dollar is also a bubble. As long as this bubble is stable, therefore, while the world economy is not in danger

Though the price of Bitcoin now is really for the rich people only(considering the 50-60k USD per Bitcoin)  but year I support the Idea that anyone can purchase bitcoin rich or poor even with small amount , because each Satoshi now is really has a value and what more in the future? that Each Sats may cost 1 dollar each.

Bitcoin price is more of a bubble than dollar or any fiat money. We've been using fiat since birth. Many generations have used it too. And the reason it's used is because it's more trusted. You can't compare that trust with that for crypto (where people can easily panic over little things).

Based on my observation bitcoin is already succeeded in his journey; the reason why I say this thing is because the price of bitcoin from the time bitcoin was created  until now is still going better and  yes bitcoin is the leading coins in the crypto currency and the same time bitcoin is the number one crypto currency intern of having a highest price or market value that why ai concluded that bitcoin is already succeeded on its journey.

Because of bitcoin success many people who use bitcoin became successful too in their life journey;  they earn enough money on that situation.

Bitcoin is for everyone, bitcoin is not made only for the elite persons, everyone can buy and invest in bitcoin no matter what value they are going to buy, The things about that more elite person is that they can just buy a huge amount of bitcoin which is a good thing for them unlike to that normal citizen who can buy an only small amount of bitcoin and they are so afraid of it because of thinking that it can get lost. Well, many people also started with a small amount of money but becomes successful because of investing it in bitcoin. No matter how much capital you have, still you can invest in cryptocurrency.

The first thing I hope happens if bitcoin succeeds is that blockchain project study becomes standard in numerous industries, including universities.

Bitcoin has already achieved success in a variety of areas, especially in industry, where the majority of institutions are investing in bitcoin, and I am confident that Bitcoin will achieve much greater success in the future, as this is just the beginning of how we will embrace the usage of crypto.

Of course, if bitcoin succeeds then there are many people who will use it and there will be a lot of applications in the economy and I know that soon, they will accept it.

The scenario where Bitcoin "succeeds" by rapidly overtaking fiat in a very short span and making it lose a huge portion of its value is a fantasy. Governments would simply not allow this to happen, if they close exchanges, you can forget about massive bull runs, because there will be not enough liquidity.

We don't even know how would Bitcoin react to some apocalyptic scenario where all fiat currencies have a hyperinflation scenario. Simple logic tells that Bitcoin will benefit from it, but what if it's all not so simple? We already saw once how Bitcoin flash crashed together with traditional markets in the first days of covid, which was totally against the Bitcoin as a hedge narrative.